Bela-Bela ( Tswana/Pedi for "the pot that boils") is a town in the

Limpopo Province Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while the provincial legislature ...

of South Africa. Deriving its name from the geothermic

hot springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

around which the town was built, it was called Warmbaths, until 2002. The town is situated in the Waterberg District of the Limpopo Province. It lies off the N1 road between

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothi ...

and

Polokwane Polokwane (, meaning "Sanctuary" in Northern SothoPolokwane - The Heart of the Limpopo Province ...

(Pietersburg). Its hot springs produce 22,000 litres per hour at . The main hot springs holiday resort (previously run by state-owned company Aventura, formerly called Overvaal) in the town is still branded ''Warmbaths''.

History

When the Tswana tribes first moved into the region in about the 1800s, they discovered hot springs in the area. The

Voortrekker The Great Trek ( af, Die Groot Trek; nl, De Grote Trek) was a Northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyo ...

Carl Van Heerden established the first farm in what is now Bela-Bela and called it ''Het Bad''. In 1873, President Burgers' Transvaal government bought the land and established a resort called ''Hartingsburg'' after the prominent Dutch biologist

Pieter Harting Pieter Harting (27 February 1812 – 3 December 1885) was a Dutch biologist and naturalist, born in Rotterdam. He made contributions in a number of scientific disciplines, and is remembered for his work in the fields of microscopy, hydrology, ...

. The British occupied the town during the

Anglo-Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

, and renamed the post office ''Warm Baths'' in 1903, and proclaimed the boundaries of Warmbaths to be the entire farm of ''Het Bad''. In 1920 Warmbaths was proclaimed a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, ...

(in the legal, not racial sense) and the township was designed by architect John Abraham Moffat in that year. In 1950, it became a magisterial district. In 1932 Warmbaths became a village town and was established as a town council in 1960. Called ''Warmbaths'' in English, the Afrikaans name for the town was ''Warmbad''. On 14 June 2002 the South African government officially renamed the town to ''Bela-Bela'' (meaning "boiling boiling"). Incorrect variations on this spelling can also be sometimes found, such as "Bella Bella" and "Bela Bela".

Climate

References

{{Waterberg District Municipality Populated places founded by Afrikaners Populated places established in 1873 Populated places in the Bela-Bela Local Municipality Hot springs of South Africa

History

Climate

See also

References